Getting Ready for Bangy

Well, I'm getting ready for this crazy adventure! It's fun to pack my two giant suit cases, prepare (not so much with shots- ouch!), and shop for what I imagine I'll be wearing with saris and scarves. It's awesome to be encouraged by family members, friends of our family, and my friends- thanks for your excitement and support! I do have moments of sadness, thinking of the people I'll miss being around. I'll really miss being with my brothers, Nick, my parents, my college friends, and my hometown friends. It's really the only bummer I have about going to Bangladesh. At the beginning of the hiring process, a couple verses from the Bible really helped my heart:

Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and your plans will succeed. Proverbs 16:3

I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that men will revere him. Ecclesiastes 3:14

Maybe you are about to embark on a new chapter and can find love and relief in those verses. Now that I'm moving to Dhaka on July 29th (less than three weeks away!), these verses have encouraged me so much:

The LORD your God is with you, He is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, He will quiet you with his love, He will rejoice over you with singing. Zephaniah 3:17

Look to the LORD and his strength; seek his face always.Remember the wonders he has done, his miracles, and the judgments he pronounced. 1 Chronicles 16:11-12

Starting Life in Dhaka
My travel time to Dhaka is 30 hours total. I'm flying from Denver, to NY, to India, to Bangladesh. When I asked my vice principal how I'd know who she is at the airport, she replied, "I'll be the only other white girl." I'll be living alone in an air conditioned, furnished apartment in a building filled with staff members from school. I've been told that a very sweet older couple from England will be living across the hall from me. Wonderfully, I've been talking to other young sisters in Christ that have become fast friends of mine! They experienced their first year(s) of teaching at Grace, just as I will. As is the norm over there, I'll have a Bengali worker in the home to do my cleaning, shopping, laundry, and cooking. I'll be totally worthless when I come home! I'll be rooming with lots of little critters, including 4" cockroaches and little lizards. We like the little lizards because they eat 500 mosquitoes an hour! I'm so excited to go on trips with people from school! I've been told that Thailand is an expensive trip, but India and Burma are right there and are reasonable trips. I also plan to plug into a ministry at Dhaka University, or another ministry, we'll see.

Starting Work in Dhaka
School starts about a week after I arrive! Grace International is a Christian school with no ties to a particular denomination or church. I'll be teaching British curriculum (whoa!) to a class of no more than eighteen students. 40% of my students' families are in the Desh on mission and the rest work at the expatriate embassies and businesses. The staff of my school is made up of expatriates (non-military foreigners) from all over the world! I've already received my class list (including my students' names, nationalities, and goofy personal questions for me). They are from many, many countries as well (including Korea, the UK, and the U.S.). All students at Grace must hold a foreign passport. Wonderfully, I'll have a classroom aid whose Bengali. I recently found out I'll be teaching my class music- that's throwing me for a loop! At UNC, elementary ed majors take a semester of elem ed music, PE, and art never really thinking they'll have to teach it... at least I didn't! The school is also air conditioned. I'll be picked up from my apartment and driven to school ten minutes away every morning in a staff van. I understand that my classroom is not large, but is clean and lovely.

Communication
I'll be there for ten months! Care packages, letters, and Christmas cards are welcome! As soon as I know my local address, I'll post it here. I plan to blog here when I can about my experiences to keep as many people as I can in the know. You can certainly email me and Facebook me and I'll answer you as quickly as I can. Internet at school and home is totally available, but Dhaka experiences days with out electricity routinely (being a large urban city of 15 million people). Please, please, PLEASE get a Skype or ooVoo account! On ooVoo, you can send and receive video messages for free. At this point, I'm thinking that will be sanity-saving for me since there is a 12-hour difference between Colorado and Bangy and Skype dates might be difficult to arrange. I would love to talk to any of you!!

Love you,
Krista